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FORMER Toowoomba mayor Tony Bourke jokes when he says he is undecided where he wants to sit on the new Toowoomba Regional Council.

So, in his bid to return to City Hall, he took two nomination forms yesterday one for mayor and one for councillor.

Returning officer Robyn Lobwein handed out three applications for mayor and 17 for councillor.

There were three confirmed candidates by 5pm yesterday all for councillor Cambooya Mayor Carol Taylor, Toowoomba City councillor Keith Beer and Crows Nest councillor Bill Cahill.

The new amalgamated council, when voters go to the poll on March 15, will comprise a mayor and 10 councillors.

Mr Bourke admits if he had his way he'd run for mayor.

But his wife Mary remembers all too well the workload that entailed when she was by his side for his three-year term from 1997 to 2000.

Mayor Bourke sits squarely between Ross Miller and Dianne Thorley on the honour board of former mayors.

He admits he is horrified by some of the names being bandied around for council.

"I have a house at King's Beach and I could go off working for six months tomorrow in Ireland or the UK," he said.

And he's been doing that for the past five years.

"I certainly don't need the money, but the system needs experienced hands.

"I think I can contribute," he said.

He cringes when he peruses the escalation in the new pay scheme for the amalgamated council which has "less and less power and responsibility, courtesy of State Government".

Mr Bourke has fond recollections of the days when alderman got paid $20 a meeting.

"And if you didn't go, you never got paid!"

The former Member of State Parliament for the seat of Lockyer for four years was an alderman on Toowoomba City Council from 1976-1988 including six years as Deputy Mayor to Clive Berghofer and chairman of Finance.

The couple opened their chemist shop in 1970 and operated in various locations around the city before selling and closing its Bridge Street base in October 2002.

"Locally I have worked as a locum pharmacist in Oakey, Crows Nest, Millmerran and Pittsworth."

As a flurry of corflute signs start to spring up across the region, Mrs Lobwein reminds candidates to seek permission before erecting signs on private property and to check council by-laws.